Rabanales Stays Active By Flexing His Promotion Muscle

“The best ways to promote yourself I’ve realized is activeness. That’s one of the major things I’ve noticed. You’ve got to definitely maintain a steady presence to make it in today’s music industry, especially with the overwhelming amount of music that comes out.”

Check out the interview with Rabanales exclusively on Skilly Magazine Online.

Skilly: Tell us where this all began. What is your history in the music scene?Rabanales:It began in Knoxville, Tennessee. I always had a love for the fine arts and even attended college to be an English teacher. I had always freestyled before college since I was like sixteen, but then once I finally got into college I started learning my true writing abilities.

It was then that I began working on my first ever mixtape under the alias Rabaneezy titled More Than An Introduction. The project was a collection of remixes over various classic hip hop records. It wasn’t long after when I began writing for my next mixtape. I had also assumed a new alias of MC Smooth. This project was titled Here To Stay and it consisted of various instrumentals that I found from a few of the blog sites I had interest in back then.

After this was released, once again I was back at it starting my next project titled Jazz, Love and Hip-Hop. It was to be released back under the name Rabaneezy but something changed along the way and that’s when I found my true name and my voice for hip hop.

Since then I’ve just went under my last name of Rabanales for my rapping. I dropped one EP under that name now and for the time being it can be found on my Soundcloud page.

What are the best ways to promote yourself as an artist? Any tips you can give us?
The best ways to promote yourself I’ve realized is activeness. That’s one of the major things I’ve noticed. You’ve got to definitely maintain a steady presence to make it in today’s music industry, especially with the overwhelming amount of music that comes out. Another major thing I would suggest is to build a good following and form a relationship with that community.

What do you ultimately want to become in your career?
I would like ultimately to become a successful recording artist. If that doesn’t pan out then I would like to be involved in the media in some shape or form.

What is the hardest thing about being in the music business?
The hardest thing about being in the music business is balance and finances. The finances are hard because it definitely takes more money than people realize to get established. You’ve got all sorts of fees from studio time to the beats, and so on after that. The balance is hard because it’s not easy trying to maintain a personal life, work life, and musician life.

What is it like in your city? What is the music scene like, and how is it like living there overall?
In my city, it’s pretty much your average southern city. You’ve got the inner city which is where more of the music and club sides take place. However, you’ve also got the outskirts/more countryside of towns. The music scene around here is pretty scarce.

Most of the people that I’ve been affiliated with either do rock (metal, psychedelic) or they do bluegrass music. There are a few others who do hip hop, but there’s not a big variety on that one. Overall I would say I love it, you’ve got the perfect mix between city life and country life here.

What are some of advice you can give and share to other artists who are still trying to come up?
My advice is to just stay true to yourself, keep grinding, and just don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t make your dreams come true. My creed is “dream big” and that’s another thing I like to tell fellow artists looking to make it.

What is the best thing that’s ever happened in your career?
The best thing to happen so far in my career is my sponsorship that I’ve gained with clothing brand Rude Boy. The clothes are awesome, urban, and one of my favorite brands to wear outside of my traditional wardrobe.

What is your inspiration?
My inspiration is to inspire others to do great things in life. I also aspire to help people make it through tough times and let them know that anything in this world is possible with hard work and keeping your mind set on your goals.

Do you feel anyone can be successful now in today’s world of music?
I wouldn’t say anyone could be successful, but there is definitely a lot more room and openness for people trying to make it. Social media has definitely had major leading factor to help with creating a buzz and generating new types of revenue for artists.

Where can we find you on social media?Twitter @RabanalesMusic
Facebook: @Rabanales
Instagram: @Rabanales93
Tumblr: @Rabanales93Soundcloud: @rabanalesYouTube: http://bit.ly/1PG9PfK